I’m always looking forward to feature Anne Sofie Madsen. Now that we have featured her Paris Fashion Week showcases for several seasons now, there’s no doubt how talented, bold, and skillful she is. She’s so good at dreaming up her ideas and executing them in both highly attentive and fantastic manner all the while staying true to her philosophy of “showing the well-known through the unknown.”

Anne Sofie Madsen, who has been part of the Parisian Official Calendar, showed her Fall / Winter 2016 collection during Paris Fashion Week on March 2, 2016. On a first glance, the garments look like a sequel from her Spring / Summer 2016 collection, but with more edge, layers, and volume. And just like her seasons past, her craftsmanship and design quality are top notch.

Her “Heaven or Las Vegas” collection was inspired by the fact that Elvis Presley was a twin-less twin and that his great-great-great-grandmother was part of the Cherokee tribe and she’s called Morning White Dove. The runway show notes was a fascinating read, summarizing a life fragment of one of America’s most famous celebrity.

“Jesse Garon and Elvis Aron was born in a shotgun shack in Tupelo Mississippi. Jesse Garon was stillborn and announced dead at birth while Elvis Aron lived.

Elvis suffered greatly throughout his life being a twin-less twin and the life and death of his stillborn twin brother, Jesse Garon, was a precious mystery to Elvis, an indelible part of his life. But then, Elvis was always intrigued by the mystery that lay at the heart of all existence.

Many believe that Jesse was the force behind Elvis’s creativity and self- destructive tendencies, with his presence in the mind of his other half, driving him forward, exploring life through the imagination of the life as it would have been with Jesse as a part of it.

Do you see what I mean?

Anne Sofie Madsen translated the inspiration to silhouettes that reflect both fantasy and reality. She creates experience through fabrics, textures, and embroideries as “an embodiment of the mystery that lies beneath all existence. The collection is an exploration of a parted human, searching and longing for the lost and unknown.”

On a first glance, the outfits look nonchalantly messy. However, look closer and they are so meticulously put together to create that edgy chic high fashion. Leather, feather embroideries, rubber strings, and fur all piled up in unlikely collaboration to exude the “spurious and glamorous, working class hero and tragic glam-clown.”

With this collection, Anne Sofie Madsen wants to deliver “an invention and reinvention of the American Dream” as well as “embodiment of the effect of inner imagination, legend and fame.” For me, I could see the latter more clearly than the former. But what about you? What do you see or feel with these outfits?

Anne Sofie Madsen Fall/Winter 2016 collection was also shown during was Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Tokyo. This showcase was part of the DHL Fashion Prize export program, and the garments lineup and styling were adjusted for Tokyo Fashion Week. Our friends and Tokyo Fashion Week regulars Style Wylde covered the runway show – nice work, Cynthia and Simon! I’m 100% sure the Japanese “get” her fashion point of view, and I can only imagine she’s on her way conquering the world of fashion, one continent at a time.